The Colonial Legacy and the Rise of Social Assistance in the Global South

Abstract

A comparative look at the influence of external actors on social policy trajectories of Kenya and Tanzania fills a promising research gap. The general orientation of colonial social policies was surprisingly similar, but the central colonial state was more directly responsible in Kenya. During the period of structural adjustment the influence of international donors was quite high, but Kenya had more room for manoeuver. After the turn of the millennium, both national governments followed international prescriptions in the domain of education, but less so in the field of health care. Concerns with affordability are quite absent in Kenya, and unconditional cash transfers have been expanded in recent years, while Tanzania is more prudent and opts for a partly conditional cash transfer program. In a nutshell, local actors matter as mediators of external influences. They resist and sometimes subvert external initiatives when their priorities are affected and external leverage is limited.